RPH on verge of collapse as coolers shut down

HUNDREDS of patients face evacuation from Royal Perth Hospital as it teeters on the verge of "collapse'' because most of its decades-old cooling systems have broken down.

Outgoing Health Department director-general Kim Snowball has confirmed that two of the hospital's three primary "chillers"' have failed, and says that if another "main chiller goes down, we're going to have to consider moving patients''.

Senior clinicians told The Sunday Times repairs to the 25-year-old units would take weeks, if not months, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the remaining unit was overloaded.

The sources said also that RPH had presented business cases to the State Government since 2006 to replace critical machinery, but the old chillers had remained. They said the Government should be "ashamed'' for neglecting fundamental equipment, risking lives, while it was spending more than $1 million to rent offices near the Swan River in Mt Pleasant, for South Metropolitan Health Service bureaucrats.

"There's a real risk the hospital will collapse," one said. "You wouldn't expect this in a Third World country."

Mr Snowball confirmed that a disaster preparedness and management unit was now dealing with the problem and that airconditioning to administration areas had been stopped after a second major unit failed on Tuesday this week, following the breakdown of the first one on Christmas Day.

He said the smaller fourth unit was "operating at half capacity'', and if the last big unit died "we're going to have to move quickly, because you've got people in (intensive care) who are suddenly going to have no air conditioning''.

"On a real hot day in Royal Perth you get hot real quick and then you've got risk of infection, you've got patients who are then getting so hot they are distressed,'' he said.

He said RPH senior staff had told him they were "pretty confident'' everything would be "ok''.

"(But) pretty confident is not quite good enough if I've got to move 500 seriously ill patients,'' he said.

"Even though we're confident it won't (fail), we need to alert our hospitals across the system, to make sure that they are prepared in the event that that was to occur that they are prepared to take patients from Royal Perth.''

Mr Snowball said chillers had been obtained from Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Karratha, and RPH was looking at bringing in a repair team from Melbourne.

Sources asked how such numbers of patients could be shifted to other, already stressed hospitals. They said there were serious concerns that surgery and other services could be cancelled and that stored drugs could spoil as temperatures rose.

Health Minister Kim Hames said the chillers were on a "planned replacement program" and an "ongoing maintenance schedule", but that recent "extraordinary" hot weather had put additional strain on the units.

He said funding had been allocated for ongoing maintenance and replacement of RPH infrastructure, including the air conditioning systems.

Dr Hames said that in addition to a replacement unit being obtained, a fan on the smaller chiller would be replaced on Tuesday and would operate at full capacity the next day.

Parts had been obtained to repair the remaining main chiller and RPH would lease a unit as a contingency measure.

"RPH is also reducing load on the remaining units by either limiting non-clinical areas to receiving ventilation but not cooling (and) increasing the cooling temperature in non-clinical areas," he said.

Opposition health spokesman Roger Cook said the Government had promised to protect RPH, but despite WA's wealth had allowed it to crumble and instead focused on the Elizabeth Quay development.

Australian Medical Association WA president Richard Choong said the AMA had previously emphasised hospital maintenance and capacity issues with Dr Hames and would continue to do so leading up to the state election.

United Voice acting secretary Carolyn Smith said the Premier had "spent $25 million on a plush new palace for himself"', but RPH patients and staff would swelter in the hottest months of the year.